If you suddenly became the leader of the country, what’s the one thing you would change?

[bluescreens]

As the child of an elderly parent, I’m frustrated by what appears to be pointless bureaucracy when dealing with local councils. When anything goes wrong with my dad’s care, I spend the equivalent of hours (sometimes days) being passed from team to team, trying to get someone to take ownership of the issue and work with me to resolve it. If I were PM, as this is so personal, I’d tackle this straight away. I’d also do a proper, comprehensive review of the NHS and ask the tough questions, with the goal of reforming it while (at the same time) keeping it free or at least very low cost at the point of use. Obviously I’d use my magic money tree to fund all of this! 🤓

This is a semi lighthearted thread - but if you were leading the country, what would you tackle first?

I'd bring back night classes. When I was young I did my A levels at night classes. There would be over 1,000 people waiting to enrol. Everyone there wanted to better themself in some way, whether it was learning a new hobby for fun, wanting to go to university as a mature student or wanting to train in a new skill so that they could change their jobs. I can't remember how much it cost, but it was affordable - maybe the equivalent of £50-100 per term.

Then I'd get rid of re-sit GCSEs - students would have to go to college at night to study for them and would be in a mixed-age group, which would do them good.

Night classes were a fantastic way to make new friends and to socialise, but most of all they were a great way for working class people to afford to learn new skills and to change jobs or go to university.

Disband the corrupt Multi Academy Trusts.
Instead of CEOs on £190k and their "heads of wellbeing" or "heads of cluster" on £120k I'd actually put that money back into schools, to actually help the pupils.
Yes, I have written to Bridget Phillipson.

Completely reform benefits.

This ⬆️.
No more cutting across lanes, going through red lights and going on pavements. They're a menace.

Im not sure how but sort out the NHS.

Pay student nurses/doctors etc, who are on placements, minimum wage for the hours worked so that people who are wanting to retrain, but can’t because of finances, will still be able to pay their bills.

1. Free prescriptions for everyone on the NHS (I was very impressed to find that Wales still has this)
2. Lower, or no, university fees (like in Scotland)
3. CEOs and managers do not need extortionate amounts of money. What on earth does one find to spend £100k+ a year on?! Pour that money into fixing the education system
4. The ministers for different departments would have worked in that role, e.g. an ex-teacher for Minister of Education, a farmer (because rather than giving it up, they'd still have cattle and sheep at home) for Minister of Agriculture, etc. Then we might get rid of some of the red tape and silly rules that make no sense!
5. Abolish the House of Lords, because sitting around in suits saying, "Hear, hear!" is a ridiculous waste of time. They should roll their sleeves up and get some proper work done!

I promise, I’m not him (and I don’t work for him either!) 😆

@TheeNotoriousPIG
1 and 2 can happen in Wales and Scotland because of significant financial support.
It would only be workable in the UK with massively increased taxation.
We know how popular that is.

Completely reform the benefits system
Rip apart the NHS and rebuild it including small charges for certain things
I would make it far less profitable to not work
and the obvious one…the immigration and asylum systems need to be ripped apart and replaced.

Yes, they're addressing those significant problems in Sweden and Denmark, and being more rigorous about asylum.

That's not what the House of Lords does. The second chamber has more political independence than the Commons and they do extremely valuable work scrutinising proposed laws and trying to get them into better shape before they are passed by the Commons. The members of the House of Lords come from a wide range of backgrounds these days and behave in a far more civilised way than MPs.

@Cardomomle True, but as I'm unlikely to ever become leader of the country, one can dream!

The electoral system, from changing to PR through abolishing the house of lords and introducing an elected higher chamber, to moving parliament to a modern building with a non confrontational chamber layout.

Yes, absolutely. It's vital to have a second chamber for scrutiny.

PR seems more appealing than FPTP, but they do allow more extreme parties to get seats, and usually end up with coalitions.

Privatise the NHS, though keep it free to users. And make people who need treatment from accidents caused by extreme sports pay for their treatment through their own insurance.

i agree social care because that will ease the NHS acute crisis. That should allow waiting lists to be reduced, ease A&E and in turn GPs.

we don’t need a new review, there have been plenty but we will need the parties to work together. Those changes will cost so I’m likely to be voted out so unless all agree will just be undone.

One for me personally would be improving public transport particularly buses outside of London, buses back under control of government - I’d look at what worked in London

Change Lords to elected members, no more in number then MPs, with stricter criteria than the Commons such as age, experience in various industries etc., with ten years terms, and the expectation that they turn up for work.

Not having one party with a majority doing what it wants then 10 years later having another with different ideas doing the opposite is hardly constructive.

As for letting extreme parties in, politicians need to better persuade the electorate to vote for them.

When you can have a majority with only 34% of voters behind you, how is that serving the interests of the population?

PR is not always what you might hope for. Eg some voters are concentrated in certain areas. With PR we could feasibly at a future election be faced with a sizeable percentage of Parliament demanding, say, a ban on dogs at a trivial(ish!) note or the covering of women on a serious level.

Shutting down the House of Commons and introducing a circle-type affair in a purpose-built modern building where people vote on an app? Yay! Let’s remove any vestige of tradition or personality from life.

I have studied these electoral systems for many years. There is no perfect system. People choose not to vote being the biggest problem.
PR may not create the crisis it did in Weimar, but there is something to be said for the stability of simple majorities.
Complex systems such as TV etc have been modelled and tried in various parts of the UK

I could be wrong but I believe members of the House of Lords are paid a daily rate for attending sessions. If they don't turn up they don't get the daily allowance. Most of them have other jobs as well so money is not the prime motivator for attending. I don't want the party political system to take over the House of Lord entirely. It's bad enough having MPs voting on party lines in the Commons rather than using their common sense and voting for what they genuinely think would work rather than what the party Whips tell them they have to vote for.

Much stronger sanctions against anti-social behaviour like volume on phones, as they make day to day life so miserable.

Better build quality, room sizes etc for all new housing.

Re open all closed libraries.

If i was Leader I would:

1. Introduce a US style child maintenance system and take payments directly from wages. Plus, fine late payments with a 25% admin fee & jail maintenance payment avoiders.

2. the child cap should be moved to 3 kids only and not for an unlimited amount of kids. The payment for the 3rd child should be supermarket vouchers excluding electricals, toys, cigarettes and alcohol.

I say this because a friend of mine who has 4 kids doesn't spend her child benefits on her kids at all but on her monthy beauty treatments. So at some money will be spent on food if not all. Also, with making child maintenance compulsory you'll have less need to top up via child benefits for multiple children past the 3 kids cap.

3. Close tax loopholes for companies

4. To claim any kind of welfare benefit including pension, you must be a) resident of the UK for at least 3 years from point of eligibility/claim. So if you've fucked off abroad for retirement, you can't claim a state pension if you haven't lived here for at least 3 years.

5. i would also charge British citizens who live abroad but who return to the UK to have NHS funded treatments and births. Same system which applies to foreign nationals will apply to British citizens who are health tourists. If they no longer live here and pay tax then they will be charged like all other foreign nationals.

6. All cosmetic surgery unless it's medically required will be charged at full private rate.

7. this will be controversial but individuals who identify as the opposite sex will be charged for 50% of their surgical transition.

Points 5 - 7 should save the NHS some money.

8. Apply corporate manslaughter and negligence charges more thoroughly to care homes and children's nursery management /owners if found guilty. This is to prevent greedy owners from getting away scot free with murder and abuse.

If you've gone to live abroad after retirement, you've surely paid into the system and are getting something you've paid for?